JetBlue executives visit Worcester, make no promises

Massport Chief Financial Officer John P. Pranckevicius gets a reaction from Worcester City Manager Michael O’Brien, JetBlue Airways Senior Vice President of Marketing Martin J. St. George, JetBlue Vice President of Network Planning and Partnerships Scott Laurence and Vice President of Government Affairs Jeffrey Goodell during a press conference at the Beechwood Hotel in Worcester Wednesday. (T&G Staff/PAUL KAPTEYN)

WORCESTER 
JetBlue and the city continued their long courtship Wednesday as executives from the popular airline toured Worcester but again stopped short of announcing service here.

City Manager Michael V. O’Brien took the three executives to Worcester’s residential neighborhoods, research laboratories and corporate offices. Public officials remained optimistic at the end of the visit.

“To quote them,” Mr. O’Brien said in an interview, “the next time they visit, they’ll bring a plane with them.”

At a press conference at the Beechwood Hotel Wednesday afternoon, Martin J. St. George, JetBlue Airways’ senior vice president of marketing and commercial strategy, said the company may have a decision on Worcester by year’s end.

“We’ve been studying this market for several years,” he said, “and we have a long list of markets we’re studying. We’re hoping to make a decision later on this year.”

JetBlue goes through a very deliberate process before launching a new market, he explained.

“We’ve gone to many cities and had conversations similar to this, many of which we chose to open, some of which we did not,” Mr. St. George said.

City officials sought to woo JetBlue today with blue cookies, blue centerpieces and blue flower arrangements. They talked about adding blue stripes to the roads connecting the highway to Worcester Regional Airport, and dispatching a blue shuttle to bring passengers from Union Station to the airport.

The Worcester community, Mr. O’Brien said, is ready to support JetBlue and make the company successful here.

Public officials and Massport, which owns and operates the airport at a cost of $5 million a year, have been working to lure JetBlue since the collapse of Direct Air last year left the airport without passenger service. A name brand like JetBlue, Lt. Gov. Timothy P. Murray said today, could bring the airport “to a whole new level.”

Earlier this month, Massport officials said JetBlue was considering two flights a day, seven days a week, from Worcester to the Florida cities of Orlando and Fort Lauderdale, starting in 2014. Scott Laurence, JetBlue’s vice president of network planning and partnerships, confirmed the airline would start with leisure destinations before business ones.

Worcester is similar in size to some of JetBlue’s other markets, including Providence, where it started service last year. JetBlue runs three flights a day from Providence.

“I think that’s going to expand very quickly,” Mr. Laurence said. “Worcester could follow right in that path.”

Massport has spent $9 million on upgrades at Worcester Regional Airport, with plans to spend $9 million more. It has also started work on a $30 million project to install a Category 3 landing system. The process could take six years.

Mr. St. George said the landing system upgrades were important but added, “I don’t think we’re going to wait till that happens.”

JetBlue’s very public consideration of Worcester as a potential destination is unusual in that most companies like to keep such deliberations secret until they’re ready to make an announcement. CEO David Barger has tweeted about visiting the city and even tweeted a recent T&G story with the headline “New Massport boss optimistic about JetBlue and Worcester.”

“We don’t like to play corporate games,” Mr. St. George said. “We’re very transparent.”

JetBlue, which accounts for 25 percent of the traffic at Boston Logan International Airport, flies to 75 destinations in the Americas.

The visit to Worcester today included meetings with business leaders and college presidents, key members of the market JetBlue may potentially serve.

“They wanted to get to know our community better,” the city manager said. “They wanted to understand the fabric of our community.”